Sorry, Jusuf Nurkic, but LeBron James might have just turned in the best poster dunk of his career
Last week, LeBron James proclaimed that, 15 years into his Hall of Fame career, he believes he’s playing at “an all-time high.” Near the midway point of the first quarter of Thursday’s visit to Oregon to take on the Portland Trail Blazers, he let his actions speak louder than those words ever could.
Well, “action,” really. One gigantic, cacophonous action that, momentarily at least, made the Moda Center just another gym to which James owns the deed.
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With just over seven minutes to go in the first, James drove left on Al-Farouq Aminu, got a step, saw no help defenders to slide over from the left corner, and made a beeline for the basket. As soon as his left foot hit the lane line, he was airborne, and suddenly, Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic had a decision to make: stay down, quietly slide to the side and concede a loud two points, or jump, hope it goes your way and you become a legend, and run the risk of it going poorly, leading to you becoming a meme.
Jusuf chose bravely. It went poorly.
That LeBron dunk on Nurkic was so ferocious it got some laughs from the Blazers bench. What else can you do?
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) March 16, 2018
LeBron is the President of Bosnia now.
— super healthy karms (@IanKarmel) March 16, 2018
LeBron James just unleashed one of the best dunks of his career. No hyperbole. The arena lost its mind.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 16, 2018
Moda Center, three minutes later, is STILL buzzing from that ridiculous LeBron dunk. Just ridiculous. But they refuse to replay it on the scoreboard.
— Jason Lloyd (@JasonLloydNBA) March 16, 2018
LeBron's dunk had the Cavs' bench going crazy. pic.twitter.com/W67cnyONb6
— Yahoo Sports NBA (@YahooSportsNBA) March 16, 2018
LeBron James has made many, many, many great dunks in his 15-year NBA career. I am not positive he has logged one that is definitely, inarguably better than this. I would say that I am also not positive that he will log one better … but, I mean, if he can do this with nearly 53,000 NBA minutes on his legs, then how the hell can you bet against him doing something even sicker before too long?
Some people get sick of all the praise LeBron gets. Well, this is why he gets it. He’s essentially superhuman, and he does dope stuff. If you’re not seeing that, well, go back to the start of the clip above and watch it again. And again. And again.
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Dan Devine is a writer and editor for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@oath.com or follow him on Twitter!
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